Tulsa Zoning: March 2005 Archives

Back to that pre-meeting: Tulsa City Councilor Bill Christiansen was concerned about his personal liability over his vote (along with Henderson, Medlock, Turner, and Mautino) to deny the final plat for F&M Bank. Acting City Attorney Alan Jackere had advised the Council that legislative immunity would not apply for that action and F&M could sue individual councilors for violating the bank's right to fair treatment. After an executive session in which the Council conferred with city attorneys, the Council voted 4-4 on Christiansen's motion to rescind denial of the plat, with only Christiansen changing his vote. Without a majority in favor, the motion failed and at this point F&M cannot proceed with construction.

If there is any lawsuit, Christiansen may be the target. By changing his vote, he implicitly admits that he wasn't using his best judgment on his initial vote. The other four voting to deny the plat can fairly and truthfully maintain that their judgment was that there was no scrivener's error on the PUD and therefore granting the plat would have been inconsistent with the approved zoning. The proper remedy for F&M is to seek a major amendment to the PUD.

The situation has inspired a very funny audio montage created by Bobby of Tulsa Topics. Bill Christiansen, Darth Vader, HAL 9000, Don Vito Corleone, Daffy Duck, Regis Philbin, Mr. Spock, Buddy Hackett, and Yoda all in one clip.

UPDATE: Bobby has a first-hand report from the pre-meeting, and a link to a Wiki entry about acting City Attorney Alan Jackere.

I've been watching the TMAPC rebroadcast from last Wednesday. The hearing had to do with removing historic preservation (HP) zoning from a part of the Yorktown HP district in order to make way for parking for a new Arvest Bank.

The lesson to be learned from this and all other contentious zoning issues is that if you can afford to hire Charlie Norman to plead your case, you will get everything you want. Thus has it always been.

The neighbors are rightly concerned that once a few lots have been removed from the district, the precedent will be set for further exclusions. HP zoning was pursued by Yorktown homeowners in order to protect the value of their investment in these historic homes. By mutually agreeing to submit to additional restrictions affecting the exterior of their property, these homeowners were trading the extra expense of maintaining the historic appearance of their property for the guarantee that their neighbors would be doing the same. And certainly they could have some confidence that if the house across the street were to go away, it would be replaced by another house across the street in character with the neighborhood. That confidence was misplaced.